The Peril Finders

Fenn, George Manville, 1831-1909Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 3.0
Word count
851K words
Chapters
86

Tags

English Originals Classic Works TeamworkSuspense ThrillerFate and FortuneHardshipsHeroismSpirit of CourageGrowing UpAdventure NovelExotic CultureYouth Reading

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.The Peril Finders by George Manville FennAuthor: Fenn, George Manville, 1831-1909,Language: English, Class: PZ: Language and Literatures: Juvenile belles lettres, Release Date: May 11, 2008

Editor's review

The Peril Finders is a work by George Manville Fenn, a prolific British writer of boys' fiction in the Victorian era, and belongs to the classic tradition of juvenile adventure stories. Fenn wrote for young readers over many years and was skilled at building suspense through tight plotting and exotic settings; this book follows that formula: the protagonists escape danger through courage, resourcefulness and teamwork, the action moves briskly, and the chapters are packed with hooks, making it a good entry-level adventure read in the original English. This edition comes from a free Project Gutenberg e-text, free of copyright restrictions and convenient for classroom distribution or self-study download. It is best read as a period text: its language habits, characterisation and handling of foreign cultures all bear the mark of the late nineteenth century, so readers can enjoy the pace of the story while also observing the narrative conventions and historical limitations of the boys' adventure genre.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Not a good fit for

Reading tips

  1. Read a chapter straight through before going back to look up new words, so the story stays coherent and lookup does not break the rhythm.
  2. After every two or three chapters, summarise the danger and the escape in one sentence to map the plot structure.
  3. Pay attention to how the book describes foreign settings, and keep comparative notes with other adventure novels.
  4. If using it for teaching, choose one passage for close reading and discuss how courage and cooperation are portrayed.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

Contents

  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3
  4. 4
  5. 5
  6. 6
  7. 7
  8. 8
  9. 9
  10. 10
  11. 11
  12. 12
  13. 13
  14. 14
  15. 15
  16. 16
  17. 17
  18. 18
  19. 19
  20. 20
  21. 21
  22. 22
  23. 23
  24. 24
  25. 25
  26. 26
  27. 27
  28. 28
  29. 29
  30. 30
  31. 31
  32. 32
  33. 33
  34. 34
  35. 35
  36. 36
  37. 37
  38. 38
  39. 39
  40. 40
  41. 41
  42. 42
  43. 43
  44. 44
  45. 45
  46. 46
  47. 47
  48. 48
  49. 49
  50. 50
  51. 51
  52. 52
  53. 53
  54. 54
  55. 55
  56. 56
  57. 57
  58. 58
  59. 59
  60. 60
  61. 61
  62. 62
  63. 63
  64. 64
  65. 65
  66. 66
  67. 67
  68. 68
  69. 69
  70. 70
  71. 71
  72. 72
  73. 73
  74. 74
  75. 75
  76. 76
  77. 77
  78. 78
  79. 79
  80. 80
  81. 81
  82. 82
  83. 83
  84. 84
  85. 85
  86. 86

FAQ

Is this book suitable for English beginners to read directly? Not really for absolute beginners. The book was written in the nineteenth century, with long sentences, period-flavoured narrative vocabulary and expressions that are rare today. Readers with intermediate English who can tolerate some unknown words can work through it with an electronic dictionary; those with weaker foundations might start with an adapted version or selected chapters.
What are the practical advantages of the Project Gutenberg edition? This edition is a free public-domain e-book, downloadable in several formats from the Project Gutenberg website, with no copyright fees, making it suitable for personal reading, classroom distribution and teaching materials. Note that it is the electronic text of the English original, without Chinese notes or an introduction.
How should readers view the period attitudes in the book? The book dates from the late nineteenth century, and its treatment of foreign cultures, gender roles and similar matters may reflect prejudices common at the time. It is best treated as a historical text: enjoy the adventure plot while noting these expressions, and use it as material for discussing the evolution of the boys' adventure genre rather than accepting everything at face value.

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

Fenn, George Manville, 1831-1909 Author

George Manville Fenn (1831–1909) was a British author whose biographical details remain limited in publicly available sources. The library holds 127 of his works, including The Little Skipper: A Son of a Sailor, The Silver Canyon: A Tale of the Western Plains, and Sappers and Miners: The Flood beneath the Sea. Most center on youthful growth and adventure, often set at sea, in mining districts, or on the western plains. He also wrote such biographical work as George Alfred Henty: The Story of an Active Life. His writing emphasizes plot momentum and the shaping of character in young readers, and is commonly classified as inspirational coming-of-age fiction, holding a place in the tradition of juvenile adventure novels.